There was a bunny out my window when I came home from work, tucked up into a roundish shape in the cool air.
Then he turned
Well I must be on a roll, because I was able to wash three windows today. And the crisp air, the deep sky, the coolness that came in while the chicken cooked in the oven - I cut up some potato, apple and onion with boneless thighs, added some herbs - that's something I should do more often.
This morning I could not get enthused about hot buckwheat cereal, overnight oats, poached eggs, or eggs of any kind - I realized I was craving some lunch foods, so I had soup and a sandwich. It was perfect; if you've never had Amy's Quinoa Kale & Red Lentil Soup, please try it. I would like to figure out how to make it myself.
It took Daisy less than a week to mangle that poor little onion toy.
I gave her the beet. I think that will last longer - she doesn't notice it as often. From petmd.com:
"Cats have fewer cones than most humans. Because of this, they see fewer colors than we can. They also have two types of cones, enabling dichromatic color vision, which allows them to identify yellows and blues. In contrast, most humans (excluding those who are color blind) have three cones, facilitating trichromatic color vision, which recognizes red, blue, and green color combinations.
“Cats have a difficult time distinguishing red and green from each other, hence they are red-green color blind,” Miller says. Dogs are also red-green color blind.
There’s a possibility that your kitty may prefer blue and yellow cat toys because the colors are more attention-grabbing for them, while red and green toys appear as similar shades of gray. However, Miller notes that color is generally less important to cats because motion is what really grabs their attention."
"What does the season mean to me? I think about it as I circle back to the house. The one word that expresses it would be splendor. October is the jewel set in the hand of time."
- Gladys Taber
The maple I see out* the kitchen window I just cleaned glows yellow in the light of evening.
Yes, at this late date I have started to wash the windows. I just couldn't make myself do it. Today, I had a headache, which wasn't bad, but I didn't like it. It's going to go below freezing overnight, so I went outside to cut some chives. The fresh air was so bracing, I came in the house and decided to wash a window, and then another. Just like that I did two, when before I was making such a production out of it in my mind. What is it about the spur of the moment? But you can't always operate like that, on a sudden impulse. Life is interesting.
Anyway, the headache is gone.
"The air is as cool as an old coin teaspoon, and a faint tang of blue woodsmoke spices the wind. The color of the great sugar maples is so dazzling, it seems I must have dreamed it. The maples give forth light, like closer suns. The oaks glow with a garnet fire, and all the thickets blaze with scarlets and pale gold and cinnamon. It is like the music of a trumpet."
- Gladys Taber
*after I typed up to this point, I realized the October poem was playing on the kitchen radio, and I went out there in time to hear him say
Now is the glory of the universe manifest. And in the mighty pageant of the hills, each patch of woods elects its own tree beauty queen. You like the dogwood? We don't quarrel. I'll take the maple, that yellow torch.
“The cottage itself it is so strong that the moment the front door is opened to a guest I can feel the delight that rises up from its hospitable old heart. I once entertained thirty writers in our sitting room and even above the noise of the thirty all talking at once I imagined I was aware of the contented cat-like purring of the cottage. It liked it. This cottage knows in its wisdom how much human beings need each other.”
To the victor I will give the right to eat from the tree of life
that is in the garden of God.
To the victor I shall give some of the hidden manna;
I shall also give a white amulet upon which is
inscribed a new name,
which no one knows except the one who receives it.
To the victor, who keeps to my ways until the end,
I will give authority over the nations.
The victor will be dressed in white,
and I will never erase his name from the book of life
but will acknowledge his name
in the presence of my Father and his angels.
To the victor I will make into a pillar in the temple
of my God,
and he will never leave it again.
On him I will inscribe the name of my God
and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem,
which comes down out of heaven from my God,
as well as my new name.
I will give the victor the right to sit with me on
my throne,
as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father
on his throne.
- Revelation 2:7,17,26; 3:5,12,21
My co-workers sang For She's a Jolly Good Fellow to me, as if more needed to be done to celebrate my time at the library; Sue got a cake for the occasion. They are a nice group. A lot of young people, all very pleasant to get along with, all very dedicated and talented. I am fortunate.
Isaias is coming up this way tomorrow night and into Monday morning - at the moment it's a tropical storm, but it's been a hurricane, up to category three. If it stays over land, it won't get any stronger, but we're supposed to get lots of rain. Anyway, this is nothing in comparison to Panama.
"As I turn back toward the little white house, I wish with all my heart that the serenity of woods and hills and valleys could be shared with the whole restless and uneasy world."
- Gladys Taber
The cool wind blew through my windows all day, tossing papers around and bringing a bit of chill into the house, but I was determined to put up with it; the day was so dry and beautiful, and the house will have to be shut up soon enough. But it was Very Windy. The mockingbird's song was not affected by the wind.
I went to Town Hall this evening because I've worked at the library for forty years. And every fall they recognize employees who are at their various milestones. If you stay in an interesting job, the time just goes by, I guess. Suzy Q, the director, took me out for dinner afterward. A special day.
"I see the fatherhood of God in a farm, in a true and deep, yet ordinary sense. Man is a protector and provider, and on a farm man truly feeds his family by the work of his hands. That is why I feel so deeply that our farming is united with our agape, the love feast, of the Mass, for liturgical worship and food go together. The Mass goes together with the work that is being done on the farm. Yet all this is deeper than anything that I can say, for as a farm develops that unity that I dreamed about long ago, the unity of man and God with the earth, the unity of persons, the unity with nature, I am sure you will begin to see wonderment born again in the heart of man.
It is the wonderment of a new life coming in the spring, the wonderment of the beauty of autumn that sheds its leaves to fertilize the earth. Thousands of wonderments come to him who is open to wonder. They come to him by the grace of God, and he knows that he must pass these things on to others, to a world that ceases to wonder."
- Catherine de Hueck Doherty
I started my Sunday cooking early, and the house smells wonderful: thyme, oregano, garlic, onion, green pepper, carrot, zucchini, tomatoes and sweet potato. What a nice way to end the day, with such aromas.
I've been meaning to clear up something - well, muddy up the waters is more like it. The missing cat is Leon, not Leo. The cat we've been feeding along with Benny, is Leo. We heard it straight from Dianne, so there is no possibility of error here, and I feel bad for whoever isn't going to see this post and miss the explanation.
Leo and Leon have been coming to our yard and going through it for many years - we could never get near them, but they liked to come here. Once Dianne said that Leo was bigger. After that when I saw one of them and he seemed large, I'd think it was Leo, and when I saw one of them and wasn't sure if it was large, I'd figure it was Leon. Not very scientific. Another time she told me that Leon had lots of knots in his fur, which they couldn't seem to get out. So when Benny showed up, and one of the yellow cats came with him, we noticed so many knots - well, this must be Leon, we thought. My brother, the hairdresser, would sometimes sit with him and patiently brush, and then use his professional electric razor. "Leon" would be so happy, he'd lick my brother's arm. Then "Leo" went missing.
We have also been in the habit of bringing Benny home in the evenings, if he's here near sunset. Benny, a black cat, is impervious to the dangers of automobiles. He is frequently to be seen in the middle of the road, grooming himself. A car may drive up to him, and he remains unfazed. Frankly, it makes us nervous wrecks, and now with days getting shorter, we just carry him home (across the street and two houses over) most of the time. Anyway, it was on one of these occasions we saw someone in Dianne's family who said that our guy is Leo, and the missing one is Leon (still missing).
I'm very sorry for the confusion this will cause! We tried to get it right!
Otherwise, after terrible humidity yesterday, today was sparkling. The mockingbirds have been singing their October recitals.
